Brightest of Shadows Chapter 5: A Second Chance
.
Hey everybody! So I really have nothing to say other than enjoy the chapter, so yeah… On with the chapter!
.
"So you can just teleport all of our friends here?! It's just as simple as that?!" Naomi asked in both surprise and excitement, seriously considering jumping up and down thanks to her newly rejuvenated energy; restored thanks to the knowledge that her best friend was alive and well, if only just a little bruised up, not to mention the extra bit of information that she would be able to see Satoshi again very soon.
"Yup... Consider yourselves lucky; you're the first people to have even a glint of a chance of escaping from this school since it's damnation..." Sachiko explained as she stole sparing glances at Yami, who absentmindedly wandered around the room, looking around for a random knick-knack to entertain himself with until Sachiko finished her conversation with Naomi.
"Well we do appreciate your help with our friends Sachiko-san..." Naomi leaned in towards Sachiko before she whispered. "And for making friends with Yami-chan... He doesn't have any friends his age, so it's refreshing to see!..."
"I-... Yeah, no problem..." Sachiko replied in a hushed tone, realizing that for whatever reason Naomi did not desire Yami to hear the topic that was currently at hand, although that reason eluded the Shinozaki girl; at least for the time being.
Seiko meanwhile had been fawning over Sachiko's hair since she had recovered from her near death experience and was assured Sachiko wouldn't flat out murder her for no reason. Once she felt safe, she had pounced on Sachiko like a cat, toting with her hair in all sorts of ways ranging from the normal to the flat out bizarre. It had started out with just running her fingers through it, since she had been amazed at how there were zero knots in the ghost girls hair, but it quickly grew from there, eventually developing in to the situation Sachiko found herself in now. Seiko was rubbing her face on the top of Sachiko's head like a cat, and the latter was absolutely beginning to grow way past uncomfortable with such intimate and frankly insane behavior.
"Naomi-san, Yami-chan..." Sachiko finally whined, pulling Yami's attention away from the blue spirit he had been playing a game of 'look the other way' with and onto her before she continued to speak. "Your friend is... Being really weird... Get her off of my head please..."
"Um Seiko?... I think you're making Sachiko-san kind of uncomfortable... Maybe you should just stick to running your fingers through her hair..." Naomi attempted to reason, but was met however with a waggle of Seiko's index finger, before the brown haired girl pressed her face against the top of Sachiko's head once again.
"Oh no can do Naomi, you must feel her hair! It's like a pillow of fluffy cherub wings!" Seiko squealed, inadvertently into Sachiko's ear, which caused no small amount of displeasure from her, all while Yami watched with a smile on his face.
"Get the hell off of me woman!" Sachiko roared, using her powers to lift Seiko off of her, before she threw her towards Naomi, causing both teenage girls to become entangled in a mess of their own clothes and limbs, leaving them to desperately wriggle around on the floor in an attempt to free themselves.
"So um... Would you mind bringing the others here now Sachiko-chan?" Yami asked after he and Sachiko finished the little laughing session that had been engaged by Naomi and Seiko's awkward position. Upon hearing Yami's request, Sachiko stretched her arms and jumped up off of the desk she had been perched on.
"Alright, just make sure that those two know that the only reason I'm even doing this is because of you Yami-chan..." Sachiko explained, become she noticed that Yami was still sitting on the desk, putting him in the range of her spell. "Um... You're going to need to... Stand back Yami-chan."
"Oh, sorry!" Yami laughed and jumped off of the desk and ran over to a safe distance as he mentally chided himself for accidentally bothering Sachiko, although he wasn't exactly sure why; after all, she was basically always good willed around him for whatever reason.
Meanwhile, while Yami was lamenting to himself Sachiko, the ghost girl had begun transporting in the rest of the Kisarai High School students into the room one by one in a pile of unconscious bodies while Naomi and Seiko watched in a bizarre combination of fascination and disbelief. Whoever this girl was it was now more obvious than ever that it would be best to stay on her good side.
Eventually the last flashes of power faded from the eyes of the two teenage girls, at which point they looked up to find each and every one of their friends there, with Ayumi and Yoshiki on top of the pile, the only conscious ones of the pile.
"Wha?!... Where are we?... Shinozaki?" Yoshiki groaned, holding his forehead as a dull pain rushed through his skull, only to gasp in surprise when he removed his hand to find it covered in a thick red liquid that dripped from his hand in sticky globs. His forehead must have been wounded at one point without him realizing it.
Yoshiki shrugged this off however, knowing that no matter how bad the injury was he wouldn't be able to actually tend to it without proper medical supplies, which this school lacked, even in the barest form. Curious as to why he hadn't yet received an answer from Ayumi, he turned to the pile of his friends find the blue haired girl in question brushing the dust off of her skirt.
"I don't know... Wait..." Ayumi's breath caught in her throat when the glanced up at Yoshiki for the first time. With a shaking hand, Ayumi pointed at Yoshiki with the look of pure horror on her face. "K-... Kishinuma-kun, behi-... BEHIND YOU!"
Quick as his body would allow him, Yoshiki whipped his vision around at a 180 degree angle to come face to face with Sachiko and Yami, both staring at him like he was absolutely insane. After a few moments of silence passed before Yami finally got up and walked over to examine Yoshiki's forehead while Sachiko pouted in despair when she saw what was on Yoshiki's forehead.
"You jerk! What did you do to my raspberry tart stash?!" Sachiko demanded, her eyes watering as she flew over at incredible and ripped off the small tan and red that had stuck to his forehead, which had been the actual source of the red liquid.
"R-... Raspberry tart?... It's not blood?..." Yoshiki was honestly quite surprised, not only at the revelation that he was not injured at all, but that Sachiko Shinozaki, the murderous little ghost of Heavenly Host was a fan and hoarder of raspberry tarts of all things!
"Yeah my treat stash! How'd you find it?!" Sachiko hastily demanded, flying up to Yoshiki's face in order get in his face, resulting in him falling back on his posterior in fear when he realized just how close Sachiko had become; and she was not happy. "I'm waiting for an answer!"
"We... We were just searching around in the nurses office and then suddenly we woke up here... I swear we never even saw your... Raspberry tart stash?..." Yoshiki trailed off when he noticed that Sachiko no longer appeared as if she was angered, her emotions replaced by features of sadness and general sorrow. Yoshiki couldn't help but to feel bad for Sachiko, no matter how much he hated to admit it. He would always get quite sad whenever his sister used to take his desserts as a child.
"Anyways... Sachiko-san, would you be able to actually get us out of the school?" Ayumi asked warily, testing the waters with even attempting to speak to Sachiko; although it was hardly far from logical, as Sachiko had been the source of all of the pain in this school after all.
"Well yes but you'll need to do some stuff in order to do it..." Sachiko, still glaring at Yoshiki, explained before floating slowly back over to Yami who was helping Naomi and Seiko awaken the rest of the group. While each were slowly waking up one by one, it was obvious that they would be physically inoperable for at least a few minutes.
"Like what?" Yami asked, his voice almost immediately causing the smile which had previously been lost to return to Sachiko's face.
"Well first you'll need all of your paper doll scraps, I'm assuming you all have yours except for Seiko-san and Yami-chan?" Sachiko asked, walking over to the group of still groggy individuals of the group to verify that they still possessed their paper scraps before she turned her head to wait for the answers from the others.
Everyone who was able to then began to dig into various pockets, each pulling out a small white scrap of paper that now seemed to glow with an otherworldly power, all except for Seiko and Yami who merely watched the others fumbling for their paper shards like confused chickens; other than Yoshiki of course who fumbled around like a headless one trying to pull himself up from the floor as he simultaneously pulled his piece of paper out.
"Good, as for Seiko-san and Yami-chan. you'll just need to hold onto my shoulders when everyone starts chanting." Sachiko instructed in a monotone, spitting out the instructions as if someone had embedded it into her brain with an axe.
"Starts chanting?! You mean we're going to do the charm that sent us here in the first place?!" Yoshiki yelled in anger, smacking a nearby pot that was resting on a self to the ground, smashing it into a pile of ceramic shards and a small mound of dirt, although it was devoid of a plant, and most likely had been for years now.
"Yes, is that a problem?" Sachiko asked annoyed before she snapped her fingers.
"Of course it is! I don't need to end up in another hell like this o-...". Yoshiki silenced himself when he noticed none other than Yoshikazu standing behind Sachiko, holding a large menacing hammer that was covered in blood. It was then that he realized why Sachiko had snapped her fingers; her minion had been waiting for a long time evidently. "Ahh... When'd he get here?..."
"You won't end up anywhere except for here you frost vanished from... I can promise you that... It will take us back to the real world easily as long as you guys all do this correctly." Sachiko informed the group, while Yoshikazu withdrew back into the shadows once again.
"Whoa whoa whoa, just wait one minute! What do you mean by 'us'?!" Ayumi snapped, before she stepped up to Sachiko in a threatening manner, however Sachiko did not back down, instead she glanced down at her bare feet, biting her lip like a nervous child before she slowly spit out her answer.
"...I want to come..."
This surprised everyone present in the room that could take in and process the information, but no one was more surprised than Yoshiki. "Why?! You could do whatever you want here! What possible reason could you possibly have to return to our world?!"
"I... I just want some friends... I don't want to be left alone again... I haven't actually spoken to my mother in years because I'm scared to speak with her... I kept killing because I thought it would make her speak with me like she used to... But I just-... I just can't do it anymore... I can't kill anymore; it used to make me feel good but... I can't..." Sachiko admitted, grasping onto Yami's hand halfway through her explanation in desperation.
"Why not? What changed? You said your mother hasn't spoken to you in years after all... You said that your mother doesn't even care for you!" Naomi asked with a little more callus in her voice than she had originally planned, but she decided to stay silent afterwards, after all, Sachiko deserved it. Didn't she?
"I know... But I just met someone who does..." Sachiko grabs Yami's hand once again, making sure that everyone in the room could see this display of childlike affection. "The first person to see past the monster I've become... Please, I can only leave with other people, I can't by myself anymore, and no one else will even get near me... If this works I'll be able to live again, I'll have a second chance at life, but only if you give me a chance..."
Ayumi completely stopped in her tracks when she heard those words exit Sachiko's mouth as thoughts began to race through her head at what seemed to be a mile a minute. Her mother and older sister had always informed her that there were two ways to pacify a ghost, but she had only believed there to be one. The first was obviously what they had been doing all along, try to appease them through various means that would sooth their souls such as returning the ghost children's tongues.
However there was another way; give the ghost something to be happy about that engulfed even the sea of sadness and regret. While she had heard stories of ghosts being appeased in such a way from her family, she could never imagine that she would ever see it happening in front of her very eyes. Something wriggled in the back reaches of her mind however; what had given Sachiko such hope?
She got her answer no more than after that when she glanced back at Sachiko and Yami to find them laughing and hugging of all things! It was then she understood; it was Yami, he had broken through to the real Sachiko that had been buried as a result of her becoming a spirit.
"But how do we know that you really have changed? You could just be using us to get to the real world to get more victims for your mother!..." Yoshiki interrupted Ayumi's thoughts with words that probably sounded much harsher than intended, at least if Ayumi could still assume that Yoshiki wasn't about to break down in anger, which was a possibility as well.
Sachiko meanwhile had flown away from Yami and was now slowly floating over towards Ayumi with a frown to end all frowns. "I won't... I swear I won't... Please... I'll do whatever you need to earn your trust..."
"Guys, come on, don't bully her!" Seiko finally called out, leaning against the wall for support as she still hadn't quite recovered fully from her near death incident a few minutes prior. "She said she'll do anything, so why don't we get her some therapy? If we work at it hard enough she can be a normal little girl again..."
"But she's a murderous ghost!"
"Didn't you hear me before?... I'll be resurrected in the real world if I go back with this method and I'll be able to..." Sachiko trailed off mid sentence as she began to think about Yami and being able to spend time with him in a way that didn't involve her hanging his most likely dead mothers fate over his head like a worm on a fishing line. Yet another thing to fill her with guilt.
"Come on guys... We basically have no other way of getting home so we have to take Sachiko with us... Besides... Something tells me that she's telling the truth..." Ayumi explained, pulling her scrap of the doll out of her student I.D once again, letting her eyes drift across the clean white surface of the scrap like a sheet of snow that had taken the form of a leaf.
"How do you know?" Naomi asked, puzzled as to why on earth Ayumi had changed her opinion on the subject so quickly, however she was not about to complain about such a thing, instead opting to go along with it.
"I just do..."
.
"Okay... Everyone ready?" Sachiko asked, surveying all of the people in the room as they carefully held out their paper scraps nervously, letting the ghost girl see them clearly, all while Seiko and Yami grasped on to Sachiko's shoulders lightly, just enough to let Sachiko know they were even making contact with her. Everyone had since woken up and had been informed on the proceedings of the events to come so it was rather easy to set up all things considered.
"We're ready Sachiko-chan..." Yami whispered, gently applying further pressure in his grip on Sachiko's shoulder, giving her the silent signal to continue her instructions in the ritual.
"Then repeat the phrase that got you here in the first place, one for each one of you and an extra one for me." Sachiko instructed, "Ready? Go!"
Each and every person silently repeated the magical phrase that had sent them into heavenly host in the first place, plus one for both Yami and one for Sachiko, and suddenly, before anyone could say anything, a gloriously bright flash of light enveloped everybody's field of vision, blinding them as they teleported away...
.
Ayumi was the first to awaken, and she was both surprised and ecstatic with the results of the ritual that they had just preformed. Not only had the ritual worked, but it had teleported them back into the classroom where they had originally teleported out of, leaving everybody not involved in the incident none the wiser.
As she counted over her friend's, the blue haired girl couldn't help but to smile as she counted, as there was one more person in the group than had originally been teleported to the school; a girl with pale skin, long black hair, and a torn red dress... And she was breathing peacefully as she slept, her tiny form enveloped in none of than Yami's arms... She was alive once more...
.
Hey peoples! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Sorry I didn't exactly have much to say today, but I'm on vacation so I can't be online to long without looking like a shut in so... Yeah... Next one should be up in a few days! Until next time my minions!